Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce, Roasties, Spinach Pie, Moroccan Flatbread

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce
Yes -- the squash is in the dish as well as on the dish!

4 cups peeled & cubed Butternut Squash
1/4 tsp ground Cloves
1 cup Half & Half or other dairy
1 cup frozen Peas
8 oz Pasta -- I used Banza brand garbanzo flour Rigatoni
Black Pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package instructions.  Reserve.

Cook the peeled & cubed squash -- bake or nuked,  your choice.  If you nuke the squash for about 10 minutes you can have the sauce finished by the time the pasta is cooked.  Reserve 1 cup of cubes and place the other 3 cups in the food processor.

Add the clove spice and the half & half, and take the squash for a spin to make a creamy sauce.  Add the peas and reserved squash cubes.  Top with fresh cracked black pepper -- you really don't want a sweet pasta sauce, do you?  

Ladle over the hot pasta and serve as you see at the top of the page.

Roasties
This is an ever-changing dish that dates back to our primitive ancestors cooking in, or over, an open fire with clay pots.  Any root vegetables, and many surface veg will roast up fine.  

Toss the veggies with EVOO and sprinkle with salt and pepper or any spice blend that appeals to you.  I set the oven at 400F and roast for 30-45 minutes. 

Easy Spinach Pie
Not Spankopita, but still tasty.  The thing I dislike most about spinach is de-stemming it!  We've been getting a lot from acquaintances and I needed something to use up this late-season thick-leaved bounty.  This one's really simple.

1 frozen pre-made Deep Dish Pie Crust, thawed
9-12 oz fresh Spinach, de-stemmed
3 Eggs, beaten
16 oz low fat Cottage Cheese
1 cup or more low-fat shredded Mozzarella
2 Tbsp plain Flour
1/4 tsp fresh grated Nutmeg
Fresh cracked Black Pepper to taste.

Here's how I de-stem spinach:  Stack together eight or a dozen leaves with stems aligned.  Press down on one side, and cut right at the stem line away from your fingers. Brush away the chopped leaves.  Cut the stems away and keep the 'half leaves'.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Nuke the spinach on High 3-4 minutes until just wilted.  In a large-ish bowl combine the beaten eggs, cottage cheese, and flour.  Fold in the wilted spinach and mozarella.

Spoon filling into pie crust and bake 40-45 minutes until center is set.

Moroccan Chickpea Flatbread
One of my Cabana breakfasts for Airbnb guests is Moroccan Shakshuka, which I've written about here before  -- basically eggs poached on top of spiced diced tomatoes.  The other day a guest asked if the dish came with bread/toast... and it made me think (you know how dangerous that can be!). Well, I found this recipe and decided to give it a try.  The guest, who was in Morocco last year, tells me this recipe is pretty tasty and authentic (even if my was a little too dark on top.

2 Eggs
1 cup Plain Yogurt
1 cup Hot Water
1/4 cup EVOO, plus more for the pan
1-1/2 cups Besan, a.k.a. Chickpea Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cumin or Ras El Hanut
pinch of salt

With a whisk together the beaten eggs, yogurt, oil and hot water.  In another bowl combine the flour, cumin, baking powder and salt.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and continue whisking until the batter is smooth.

Let the batter rest while you preheat the oven to 450F (the original recipe called for 475F but that seemed to be too hot).  Oil the bottom of a heavy oven-proof 8-9" skillet or pan and then add the batter.  Spread things around to cover and smooth.   Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is deep brown (not quite burnt like mine was) and the center is set.  Cool before slicing and carefully removing from the pan.  Serve with butter and/or jam.

Top and bottom of the flat loaf